Environmental Facts

According to The Wall Street Journal, the U.S. goes through 100 billion plastic shopping bags annually. (Estimated cost to retailers is $4 billion)

Aside from energy used in production bags cause enormous environmental issues. Next time you’re in a park, or drive down the road, notice how many plastic bags you see stuck in the trees and shrubs, even along a beautiful creek. This isn’t just an issue of destroying the beautiful scenery. This is dangerous.

Hundreds of thousands of sea turtles, whales and other marine mammals die every year from eating discarded plastic bags mistaken for food.

Plastic bags are among the 12 items of debris most often found in coastal cleanups, according to the nonprofit Center for Marine Conservation.

Reduce. Don’t automatically take a plastic bag — when asked “Paper or Plastic??” say “neither.” Carry small items or use a reusable bag. Have a few with you in the car; get in the habit of taking one into every store you go into. Not just super markets, but the Wawa, CVS, etc. Some grocery stores even give a cash credit for using your own bags.

Reuse. the plastic and paper bags you have. Take your own into all the stores you visit.

Recycle.You can recycle all the plastic bags you’ve collected at your local grocery store.This includes newspaper sleeves and dry cleaning bags.Tip: If your market doesn’t have a bin to collect and recycle plastic bags, talk to the manager and encourage them to!

COMPACT FLUORESCENT LIGHTBULBS/CFL’S

Use 75% less energy and last up to 10x longer than incandescent light bulbs

Cost more ($4.48 vs. $0.42) but ultimately save $30 each over their long lifetimes because they use far less electricity.